With 5 times failed hip, Iraqi teacher gets stands uptall again post a successful revision surgery

With 5 times failed hip, Iraqi teacher gets stands uptall again post a successful revision surgery”

~Deniedof medical support abroad, Iraqi woman finds India for clinical excellence~

Setting yet another milestone in orthopedic surgery, DrSachin Bhonsle performed a complicated hip replacement revision surgery on a52 year old Iraqi lady who had undergone 6 failed hip surgeries before.

Dr Sachin Bhonsle, Consultant Orthopedic Surgeontook up a challenge to perform the 6th followed by 7th revisionputting the patient back on her feet. Sixth is a preparatory for the final revision(7th surgery).

Patient Ms Nadia, a teacher from Baghdadhad a childhood injury to her right hip which damaged the joint progressivelytill it developed arthritis. When shewas 40 years of age she decided to opt for a total hip replacement which wasperformed in her own country. The surgery did not yield good results and herjoint soon dislocated. She had to undergo second surgery to revise the socket.This surgery gave her benefit but only for two years.


In 2002 the hip developed problems onceagain and she had to have a revision surgery for the third time. This failedagain after three years.

In 2005 a fourth surgery was performed tochange the entire hip joint. She got a good pain relief after this surgery.This hip joint had loosened out by 2010 when a fifth surgery was performed tochange the joint surfaces. She did not get any benefit from this surgery.

Reasons for failure:-

Unstable joint replacement and poor soft tissue balance
Early wear and tear because off poor alignment
Loosening because of inadequate fixation in bone and suboptimal cementing
Extensive soft tissue scarring and inexistent muscles because of repeated operation in same place

Meanwhile destiny gave her a sixth chance,having suffered for so long Ms Nadia mustered the courage to rectify herproblem and decided to come down to India and get operated upon her hip onceagain.

Dr Sachin Bhonsle says “This case is a fineexample of a very complicated hip replacement operation as Nadia had undergone severalhip replacements before and those operations were failures. Bone had becomebrittle due to intense scarring and there was a major possibility of fracture.Nerve damage was possible during approaching such hips because of nerveentrapment in severe scarring. Her poorly controlled diabetes proved a furtherchallenge.”

Dr Bhonsle had to first perform the surgery(6th) to remove all the implants, bone cement and clean up the infection. Heperformed the final revision surgery (7th surgery) during 1st week of July.

“I opened up the wound and thoroughlycleaned it again. I first prepared her socket (used a cement less socket of amodern design which can last for many years) and put some bone grafts in thedepth. Then i went on to prepare the femur which proved a huge challenge. Therewere many holes and breaks in the femur. I had to use a titanium stem of greatlength to span breaks in the bone. In addition i had to strengthen the boneusing- bone grafts, titanium mesh, plates and screws. It took almost 7 hours tocomplete the procedure with satisfaction.” adds Dr Bhonsle.

The surgery was successful with anuneventful recovery and Nadia was able to walk within 48 hours of surgery. Dr.Bhonsle is very optimistic that the patient will lead a normal life and willnot require another revision in her lifetime.

“Having undergone 5 surgeries before,doctors abroad told me that a sixth correction could never be performed on myhip. I thought that I will have to lead a challenged life for the rest of the years.But like the saying goes every cloud has a silver lining! I too got hope after 12years of suffering from Dr Bhonsle who took up the challenge and cured me. AllI want to say is there is a solution to every problem, only thing is we need tohunt out for the opportunity and everything else falls in place”, says Nadiawith a comforting smile on her face.